RFID Gets Itemized
Most people thought item-level RFID tracking was years away, but many early adopters are launching pilots that could lead to major rollouts this year.
By Mark Roberti
Apr. 1, 2006—Not long ago, the conventional wisdom was that companies would begin deploying radio frequency identification technologies by tracking pallets and cases in the open supply chain. As the volume of tags consumed annually by these applications rose, the price of ultrahigh-frequency RFID tags would fall, and when tags got cheap enough—perhaps 5 cents apiece—companies would begin to put them on individual items. Turns out, conventional wisdom wasn't so wise.
Leading early adopters around the world are aggressively exploring the feasibility of tagging individual items today with an eye to rolling out the technology as soon as it's practical. Rollouts of item-level applications have already begun in several industries. In the pharmaceutical sector, U.S. drug manufacturer Purdue Pharma and others are tagging and tracking individual bottles of pills. German health-care provider Saarbrücken Clinic Winterberg is tracking individual bags of blood. U.S. jeans maker Levi Strauss, Japanese retailer Mitsukoshi, U.K. retailer Marks & Spencer and others are tracking apparel and footwear. Swiss watchmaker and jeweler de Grisogono is tracking watches and diamond rings. And Japanese retailer Yodobashi Camera is tracking individual digital cameras.
Many more companies are planning item-level tagging pilots. A December 2005 survey of retail managers conducted by AMR Research found that 42 percent of respondents say that item-level tagging will be their organization's most strategically important technology investment over the next 12 to 24 months.
Apr. 1, 2006—Not long ago, the conventional wisdom was that companies would begin deploying radio frequency identification technologies by tracking pallets and cases in the open supply chain. As the volume of tags consumed annually by these applications rose, the price of ultrahigh-frequency RFID tags would fall, and when tags got cheap enough—perhaps 5 cents apiece—companies would begin to put them on individual items. Turns out, conventional wisdom wasn't so wise.
Leading early adopters around the world are aggressively exploring the feasibility of tagging individual items today with an eye to rolling out the technology as soon as it's practical. Rollouts of item-level applications have already begun in several industries. In the pharmaceutical sector, U.S. drug manufacturer Purdue Pharma and others are tagging and tracking individual bottles of pills. German health-care provider Saarbrücken Clinic Winterberg is tracking individual bags of blood. U.S. jeans maker Levi Strauss, Japanese retailer Mitsukoshi, U.K. retailer Marks & Spencer and others are tracking apparel and footwear. Swiss watchmaker and jeweler de Grisogono is tracking watches and diamond rings. And Japanese retailer Yodobashi Camera is tracking individual digital cameras.
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| Leading early adopters around the world are aggressively exploring the feasibility of tagging individual items today with an eye to rolling out the technology as soon as it's practical. |
Many more companies are planning item-level tagging pilots. A December 2005 survey of retail managers conducted by AMR Research found that 42 percent of respondents say that item-level tagging will be their organization's most strategically important technology investment over the next 12 to 24 months.
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